Overview

Ready to laugh until you're horse? Brian P. Cleary, author of the best-selling Words Are CATegorical series and the poetry collection Rainbow Soup, is off on a gnu hilarious adventure in language—PUNS! This imaginative collection of silly and sophisticated puns uncovers double meanings that are kind dove hiding in everyday phrases. A helpful pun-unciation guide is included on porpoise to help ewe give it a try!

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Overview

Ready to laugh until you're horse? Brian P. Cleary, author of the best-selling Words Are CATegorical series and the poetry collection Rainbow Soup, is off on a gnu hilarious adventure in language—PUNS! This imaginative collection of silly and sophisticated puns uncovers double meanings that are kind dove hiding in everyday phrases. A helpful pun-unciation guide is included on porpoise to help ewe give it a try!

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

The man behind the Words Are Categorical series (A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun?, etc.) here introduces puns gallore via homophones and homonyms in Rhyme & Punishment: Adventures in Wordplay by Brian P. Cleary, illus. by J.P. Sandy, divided into categories such as music or animals. ("When salmon I go fishing,/ we horse around and play./ Then eel always end up lion/ 'bout the ones that got away.") Factoids and visual clues help to decipher the meaning of the puns. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Following the introduction in which the author provides an explanation of a pun and how he creates them, are four sections. Each is a separate topic: music, animals, food, and geography. In case there are words that the reader might not know, Cleary has included a "pun-unciation" guide that provides a definition and how to pronounce the word. This is a helpful tool, for there will be certain music terms and perhaps countries with which some readers may be unfamiliar. Some of the puns will be simple to read. Others will take a bit more time to decipher. Playing with words and creating puns is a terrific way for children to begin to feel more comfortable with reading. With the humorous cartoon-style illustrations and one or two puns per page, this has an inviting picture-book look. The puns in the geography section will make an interesting introduction when studying other countries. There is a world map at the back of the book with a key to show where each of the mentioned countries is located. There is a bibliography of books with puns and also a list of websites. 2006, Millbrook Press, Ages 8 to 12.
—Sharon Salluzzo

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-Cleary begins with an introduction that clearly defines puns and then gives various ways to decode them. The main body of the text is divided into four chapters, each of which contains roughly a dozen four-line poems related to the subject at hand. The puns are in bold print and a different color than the rest of the text, and potentially unfamiliar words are explained at the bottom of the page. Some of the selections contain expressions that may be a stretch for children ("dairy air"), but for the most part they are both amusing and get their point across, e.g., "My grandma wears a two-foot wig/that's held on with ape pin/But if you think her hair is big,/ewe otter sea urchin." Sandy's lighthearted cartoons add to the silliness, and make this a good choice for either browsers or for language-arts lessons.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Brian P. Cleary is the creator of the best-selling Words Are CATegorical series, now a 13-volume set with more than 2 million copies in print. He is also the author of the Math Is CATegorical series and the single titles Rainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry, Rhyme and PUNishment: Adventures in Wordplay, Eight Wild Nights: A Family Hanukkah Tale, Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes: A Very Silly Alphabet Book and The Laugh Stand: Adventures in Humor. Mr. Cleary lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

J.P. Sandy has been creating cartoons and humorous illustrations for newspapers, magazines, and greeting cards for 25 years. He is also a musician and a collector of comic books and old baseball cards. Mr. Sandy and his wife have two sons and a dog.

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Customer Reviews

Anonymous

Posted May 13, 2006

Hilarious plus a bunch of lesson plans!!

Rhyming, HILARIOUS puns, plus, and this is the best part for TEACHERS, on each page, at the bottom is some little educational fact-oid! The four groupings for the puns are: Food, Geography, Music and Animals. A sample from geography: 'Aunt Anna can fix anything -- A PARIS skates, a cup, If your pants rip INDONESIA, Just HAVANA sew them up!' The footnotes would then tell you where these places are in the world, what language they speak, etc. AND there's a map at the end of the book with stars to locate the punned-about countries and capitals. The art is the coolest. It's sort of retro, reminding me of the '50s, but with a modern twist. I just LOVE this book!!

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